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Topic: You give toys a bad name (Read 1527 times)

Seriously, is anyone going to buy these? Have we gotten so desparate for new and "original" action figures that we've had to stoop to making Bon Jovi? Dare I suggest that Kip Winger might be next in line?

I saw this news yesterday, and thought it seemed strange as well. I think that ruiner might have a choice too with license choices. As much as I like Simpsons, they don't exactly seem to be flying off the shelves in this current form. Same with Napoleon Dynamite. It will be interesting to see how the LOST figures/statues do. Maybe they'll get more casual fans of the show (not necessarily collectors), but we'll have to see. I'm wondering if its getting to the point where there are too many things being licensed, and we're going to see a larger failure in the action figure/statue licenses, before they are scaled back to closer where they once were. Aside from "kid" licenses like TMNT, Power Rangers, etc., the market might be more limited than the number of franchises that have been licensed right now.

The problem with some of McF's newer licenses is shelf life. Napoleon Dynamite was hot for what, six months?

It was everywhere and you could find anything with ND on it (shirts, keychains, notebooks, etc.).

Items that can be easily turned around from a manufacturing standpoint - take a blank keychain, stamp the ND logo on it and you're done.

The problem with figures is that they take A LOT longer to develop. Investment is actualy required. You need skilled artisans to make the tooling models, then you have to cut the steel molds, run first shots off of the molds, tweak the molds, advise the paint ops, obtain licensor approval...all of this takes close to a year from start to seeing the product on the shelf.

More often than not, by the time the product is in production, the trend is over.

Not to stray too far from the Bon Jovi topic, but I think the Simpsons license will be much more valuable to McFarlane next year than it is now, with the movie and all. The Simpsons will be back in the spotlight for the first time in years, and possibly for the last time. It'll be interesting to see what they have in store--and if it's successful or not. Hopefully it will be.

Not to stray too far from the Bon Jovi topic, but I think the Simpsons license will be much more valuable to McFarlane next year than it is now, with the movie and all. The Simpsons will be back in the spotlight for the first time in years, and possibly for the last time. It'll be interesting to see what they have in store--and if it's successful or not. Hopefully it will be.

Simpsons are currently problematic, but that's largely owing to a decline in the popularity of the show (at least amongst those that collect the toys). Couple that with a full line of already available toys that have decreased dramatically in price recently and that are readily available on ebay. You can buy entire series of toys on ebay for about $10 plus shipping. Contrast that with $20 for the couch gag. Not so good.

I think part of the problem is that while McFarlane's stuff was really hot for a while, the bloom is clearly off that rose as well. Sportspicks were really hot for a time, but now many retailers don't stock them and lots of people wait for them to go on clearance anyway. The production runs now that the company is successful are large and nothing is rare anymore and that drives a significant portion of initial sales - potential for resale on ebay.

I also think that while the general scale of his products is great, they are also on the big side. TMP once likened collecting his stuff to hockey cards and how he wanted every single Gretzky card when he was growing up. Well, he hasn't seemed to grasp the practical difference between hockey cards and 6-8" action figures. You can get a whole lot of hockey cards in a binder but need feet of space for toys. Big, big difference.

With respect to Bon Jovi I think there's still some potential there. We may not be the biggest fans in the world, but they can (or could) fill stadiums and sold a ton of records/cd's. You may not be buying them, but someone is.

I'd like to see McF do some early Peter Gabriel, back when he was with Genesis and wearing his crazy costumes. The flower, the Slipperman, the wacky triangle-head thing from Live, even Rael...I'd be all over that stuff.